Pollination Services Surveys 2018

Honey bees are excellent pollinators of many crops, but the burden placed on honey bee health by current pests and diseases, is heavy. Furthermore, the looming threat of a Varroa mite incursion, makes our reliance on honey bees for pollination decidedly risky.

The overall objective of the project is to investigate and develop potential alternative, native insect pollinators, for utilisation in horticultural crops. The leading candidates are stingless bees, because they can be managed in hives, just as honey bees are, and moved into crops as required.

There are many parts to this project, and one of them is the collection and review of data on the Australian stingless bee industry, with a particular focus on the current and potential use of stingless bees as managed pollinators.

This survey will enable researchers to better understand the current state of the stingless bee pollination service industry. Apart from basic information such as species and colony numbers, the survey also asks important questions, such as how we can best support stingless bee keepers, and what are the greatest challenges for their industry. We would greatly appreciate your help in developing an improved understanding of the current state of stingless bee keeping in Australia.

We are also asking horticultural industry groups to participate in a separate survey. This will look at grower practices, including insect pollinator dependence, pest management, pesticide use and grower awareness of insect pollinators.